I can appreciate that, but what it looks like to me is:
- the popular perception of atheists (particularly New Atheists) is that science rules out God. However, they are going beyond what science can actually say to do so.
- the ID response is to go beyond what science can actually say (design inference) to rule in God.
It seems to me like ID is giving into or conceding that science can prove or disprove God rather than pushing back at the real problem, that the New Atheists are going beyond science when they do so (scientism).